Friday, March 12, 2010

A Sartorial Observation

Men's business clothing is boring as hell. Blue, gray, stripe, no stripe. White shirt, blue shirt. It's not only boring to look at, its boring to wear. It's a uniform, and short of embroidering names on jacket fronts it needs to be treated as a uniform.

Don't even get me started on formal wear. By definition, formal wear rules for straight men require a man to be a neutral backdrop for the dish on his arm. Black suit, white shirt. What's more bland. The lack of respect for this simple rule is part of the reason men at the Oscars look so damn stupid.

There is no such thing as flashy formal wear. If you want proof, look at the characters in a symphony orchestra. Musicians and wavers dress to mute their personal virtuosity. To not get in the way of the tunes. It works.

Gym rat that I have become, depending upon what time of day I show up, I can get doused with Ellen or Dr. Phil on one set of monitors and ESPN on the others. Mercifully, without my glasses I can barely see the floor, but I have seen enough ESPN lately to make one observation. It may be a rule.

Except for the old white men, big conference and pro basketball coaches, both men and women are collectively the best dressed people in America.

I base this on a small sample size, but the rationale is sound.

Most of the men, were players. Being big, much of their clothing is custom. Many are young enough to still read GQ, and are influenced by what influences their players. They are paid well, and I would suspect NIKE, et al slips a bit of a clothing allowance into their Christmas stocking,along with a personal shopper.

Save for the size issue, women coaches are have the same incentive to look well.

6 comments:

Yep. My alma mater's former coach, who now coaches for our rival, was always known for his Armani suits, Gucci shoes, etc. Quite the dresser. Of course, he's now embroiled in an unseemly scandal, so while he dressed impeccably, he certainly did behave that way.